Splatoon: The Bate Bros.
A Peace Offering
Splin, Sharq, Tai, Aussie, and Jerry were all sneaking quietly through Inkopolis, wearing a huge cardboard box as their cover, looking like the most ingenious plan ever devised if I say so myself. Accompanying them were the Tele-Cube and Salty, also hiding in the box. So far, they had managed to walk past the hills Splin and Sharq called home, into the city, past the businesses and apartments, and were now closing in on the plaza.
"I'm surprised you Inklings have technology that can create anything out of thin air." Aussie admitted, lightly pressing against the side of the box. "But I'm concerned that this box disguise will ultimately fail."
Tai responded saying, "Relax, Aus. It worked the first couple of times, no one's gonna-"
"What the…?" Someone said.
The group froze, and all crouched as squids and octopi. Jerry really couldn't do much but crouch, but thanks to his already small stature, he managed to squish himself to a similar size to the young cephalopods. Same with the Tele-Cube and Salty, they just stuck to the ground like glue. Carefully lifting the bottom of the box, Aussie peered out, noticing a group of Inklings in the main plaza, seemingly looking in their direction. She slid back inside, huddling close to Tai. Tai reverted to humanoid form, and slid her goggles on, loading her Octoshot up. Slowly, they opened up the top flap of the box like a feature in a pretty awesome stealth game, and looked around, everyone holding their respective weapons, yes, Sharq had his Strange Krak-On Roller with the odometer. Oddly though, no one seemed to notice, and the Inkling that was surprised was actually referring to the Inkopolis News broadcast.
Callie and Marie were live onscreen, discussing the Splatfest results.
"Art currently has the lead in popularity points, so let's go to the skill points and see how well you all did!" Callie fist pumped for the 100th time on the news, that's literally her most used pose next to the "Stay fresh" pose.
"Alright." Marie said, not liking the results so far.
"Wait for it…" The two cousins said together, as the skill results totaled. The results were labeled onscreen, Callie and Marie sounding it off with a simultaneous, "Boom!"
"Aww, yeah!" Callie said smiling.
"Dang…" Marie hunched over.
The results were totaled, Art getting a 51% score, Science getting a 49% score, duplicates to the amount of popularity surprisingly.
"So that means, the winner of this Splatfest is…" Callie said, still smiling… "Team Art!"
"Nooo…" Marie said, defeated.
"Good work all you artists out there!" Callie beamed.
(I don't remember all of the Splatfest dialogue, ugh…)
"You only won because us scientists have jobs to do." Marie sassed.
"Ouch. That was uncalled for…" Callie stated distressed.
Marie snickered. "And now, we wait." She whispered to her fellow Squid Sister, who stared at her.
"What have you done Marie…" Callie whispered back.
Splin, who was watching the display, facepalmed again, knowing what would happen next. "Guys, cover your ears."
Sharq nodded, pulling his cap down and ducking back inside the box. Tai followed suit, albeit a little confused. Aussie and Jerry stared at Splin strangely, with Splin looking back at them worryingly. They stared at each other, before deciding that this would probably be for the best. Splin plugged his headphones into his phone he brought along with him, turning it up very high on the volume scale. As if on cue, a chorus of people watching once again went nuts over the bunsen burn, Inklings on both sides laughing their butts off. Even our heroes/villains in the box began to chuckle, before realizing that this was the distraction they've been waiting for.
"Let's go while they're still chuckling!" Splin said, the other nodding. They all hopped back into the box, closing the top cover, and ran to the manhole, kicking it open, and falling through, sliding down in a box sled. While everyone was laughing and cheering over the sassy Inkling, a certain feline was awakened, surveying the area.
"Mrow? ...Mew. (Wha? Oh. It's just Marie sassing again." Judd murmured, falling back asleep.
They finally arrived in Octo Valley, all with a thud. They still held onto their weapons, Jerry pivoting his head cannon, Aussie and Tai holding Octoshots in a synchronized squad formation, Splin cocking his Forge Splattershot Pro, Sharq raising his Krak-On Roller over his head, the Tele-Cube and Snail ready to ram into anything that moved. However, the entirety of Octo Valley seemed empty. The group surveyed the area, eventually deciding to walk forward. What was different about the area was that the kettles serving as entrances to the levels all had stickers of squids on them. They traversed through the hub world, finally reaching the final area before the floating UFO boss kettle. Suddenly, a kettle shook nearby, and out popped a pair of Octolings.
"L-33! 7-00! Are you two okay?" Aussie asked, walking towards them to help them out.
L-33 gasped for breath, Aussie pulling her and 7-00 up carefully. "J-Just barely… Most of our Splatoon was wiped out by- WATCH OUT!" L-33 and 7-00 quickly reached for their Octoshots, but were stopped by Tai.
"Whoa! Lee, Ova! You two alright?!" Tai ran over, and gave the two kelp-wearing Octolings a hand.
"T-There's no time for that, T-41! There happens to be two of our enemies-" Ova began, before Tai shushed him.
"These two? They're fine." Tai gestured to the brothers, who waved shyly. Splin coughed, putting away his weapon, nudging Sharq as well, who nodded and threw his Roller to the side. Lee narrowed her eyes, and Ova lowered herself back into the kettle.
"They're our prisoners." Aussie stated calmly. Tai glared at her again, but soon gave up, and nodded slowly. Lee and Ova hopped out, the two Octoling females glad to see that they weren't worthless killing machines bent on destroying them.
"Wait, why would they have weapons?"
Splin looked at the sky for a second, then said, "Err, guardian slaves of sorts. They captured us and saved our lives, so now we work for them. Right Sharq?" Splin poked his brother, who smiled.
"Yep! To protect and serve I always say!" Sharq paused, then leaned in to whisper by Splin, "I never say that! I think we fooled 'em." Splin began to sweat a little, ready to run if this went sour. However, the other Octolings stood up and clapped slightly.
"Well done T-41! We got allies from their side!" Ova cheered, Lee smiling as well.
"Did that actually just work?" Tai whispered to the others. Jerry just nodded, his body moving up and down with each nod.
Aussie simply stared. "I think the work has cooked their heads."
"Alright, 4U55, T-41, let's go. He's waiting for you guys to return." Lee said, leading the group away.
"What about me?!" Jerry spoke up.
"Right, sorry J3." Lee lead everybody away, to a kettle placed out of sight beneath a tower of discarded materials, jumping through. Ova and Jerry followed, Aussie keeping a watchful eye over the Inklings before she too descended into the kettle.
Splin eyed the kettle carefully. "How do we know they aren't going to splat us as soon as we jump down?"
"You don't have too much of a choice, do you?" Tai said, acting sweet.
Splin sighed, before leaping in as a squid. Sharq gulped, also jumping in. Tai followed, a small cover slid under the grates of the kettle as she did. As they slid down the hole leading to the heart of the Octarian forces, Sharq's eyes widened.
"Splin, where's Salty and the Cube?" Sharq asked.
Sorry I forgot to write them in.
Splin checked his pockets, and sure enough, the two small yet dangerous pair of a cube and a snail were stowing away inside.
"Thanks for reminding me Sharq, as well as you voice." Splin said.
Yeah, let's go with that. You're welcome.
The whole lot of them landed onto a cold steel floor, dim lights barely illuminating the area around them.
"Wait… Isn't this the meeting room? Yeesh, this place has been trashed worse since I've left." Tai said, examining the tables. Debris and rubble littered the floor.
"Yeah, well if the main power source is taken away, we're gonna have some problems." Ova said sadly.
"Wait, what?!" Aussie exclaimed. "The Great Zapfish is gone?! What about our defenses, our plans?! Our LEADER?"
Lee sighed. "Didn't work. There were too many Inklings, and they were too experienced. After those Squid Sisters hijacked the radio, we might as well have been dancing to our deaths. As for DJ Octavio…" Lee went silent.
"What? Did those Inklings kill Octavio?!" Tai asked.
"No, they took them back to their base. I can only imagine the horrors he will be subjected to…"
Octavio was a DJ, and a proud one at that. Any parties, celebrations, birthdays, or any matter of relaxation was a gift from above for the Octarian forces, who always eagerly looked forward to the sick beats that their leader would put out for them. Octavio was a proud DJ, looking forward to any matter of festivities. However, there is an exception for being trapped in a snowglobe while a bunch of Inklings party in front of them. Placed inside the Squid Sisters' studio, the Inklings outside were partying because the Great Zapfish returned, unaware of the work behind it.
"Hey, chill Octojerk! Now that we got the Great Zapfish back, there's no need to be such a downer!" An Inkling Agent Girl said, shooting at the snowglobe.
Octavio sighed, shielding himself to the ink splatters across the glass. The girl giggled, and walked away to her other friends celebrating under the tune of the Squid Sisters.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this." Octavio looked to his right, where Cap'n Cuttlefish was sitting, watching the Inklings waltz around.
Octavio sighed. "Cuttlefish, you know well that this was the only option I could've taken. Can't feed my people without a light to watch the food, or lights at all. We've been hit hard for months, running out of supplies, and materials. Mixing tapes and scratching records will only keep them happy despite their hunger for so long. So I had to."
Cap'n Cuttlefish looked down. "Couldn't ye have asked?"
"So I can get shot in the tentacle as soon as I enter Inkopolis? The war must've had a bigger effect on your brain than I thought!"
The two chuckled slowly, before they went silent once again. Octavio put one of his sucker on his head and one on the glass, thinking. "Hope those kids are alright."
The rooms of the Octarian forces were in just as bad condition as the main briefing rooms were, lamps and ceiling lights blown out. Splin observed the Octarian survivors with a look of pity, which was usually answered with a glare.
"The Zapfish must have powered more than we had initially thought, huh Sharq?" Splin asked his brother, who nodded at the melancholy scene.
"I feel awful man. We practically helped kill off another species!" Sharq said. The Octarian forces nearby glared even more so after hearing that.
"Eh, don't worry too much about it." Tai said. "We all knew what we were getting into the second we decided to follow Octavio, now we're just paying the price."
"Here we are." Lee said quietly.
The group stopped in front of a giant room, filled with chairs, a stage, a couple tables, even a bar of sorts. There was an open space in the middle, and a stage at the front of the room where everybody could see. There were even multiple upper levels overlooking the area, but they were also in disrepair. In the back, there was a small outlet, as well as a wide pen.
"Welcome to the rec room Inklings." Ova stated proudly.
"WHOA. This is your guys' rec room?! We could throw a killer party for literally everyone here if we wanted to!" Sharq exclaimed, hopping around the place to examine it.
"That's the idea." Aussie smiled slightly. "When Octavio thinks we're losing moral, he brings us all here. The pen in the back was where we kept the Zapfish at first, but then you guys came along."
"Oh." Splin looked around. "Apologies… Didn't think ahead on that one."
"...Wait. Inklings can apologize?" Ova's eyes lit up.
Splin deadpanned. "Very funny." Splin stated, before Lee and Ovas' eyes went to him and Sharq in bewilderment. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Well, yeah! We always thought that Inklings were cold-hearted criminals who always robbed from us!" Ova said. "You guys are the best prisoners we've ever had!"
Splin looked at Sharq, who shrugged in response. "Uh… Well, we can't really speak on behalf of our entire species, but… Yeah." Splin awkwardly said, and shuffled away to one of the seats. Sharq followed, sitting down next to him.
"Dude, these people are suffering because of dumb stuff we and other Inklings did." Sharq whispered. "Plus, they've never heard an apology from an Inkling before?! That's messed up."
Splin sighed. "I don't think there is much we can do Sharq. After all, we are in a bit of a hostage situation. The agents captured their leader, and in turn they capture us? Two people who didn't even want to get wrapped up into this in the first place? Pretty uneven sides. These people aren't getting any better either, all of their tech is beginning to deteriorate from lack of power, and we're to blame for THIS." Splin gestured to the entire room.
"We've come back from worse." Tai took a seat at the table. "I mean, the Great Turf Wars weren't any better, the guy who forgot to plug in the Great Octoweapons was an idiot, but other than him we managed pretty well by ourselves, until the power ran out."
A spotlight from above smashed into the table, sending the three of them rolling back.
"Yep, the same thing happened the last time we lost electricity!" Tai shouted.
"Hmm… So wait, all of the things that are going wrong are just because of electrical problems?" Splin asked.
"Only some. Now that the Inklings have beaten us back, all we can do now is stock up on the little supplies we have and hope for the best." Aussie joined in. "We've sent scouts out to look for food, clothing, anything, but most of them have been splatted or come back empty-handed. The respawn points we have here also run on electricity, which mean that unless we get the power back on…" Aussie's head drooped.
A melancholy silence continued, the only sounds heard were the pieces of the room falling or Octarian forces limping through the halls.
Hmm. Splin, Sharq, these people are in one heck of a pickle, I'd say.
Splin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we've been saying that for the past three minutes."
Well then, think. What would you do in this situation?
Splin held his hand to his head. Digging into his pocket, he took out the Tele-Cube, which rotated gently. He reached into his other pocket and took out Salty, who hopped onto the table, staring at Splin wonderingly. Splin's eyes lit up, and he stood up from the table.
"Guys, I think I have an idea..."
"Transporting supplies from Inkopolis? That's suicide Inkling, you could get yourself banned from the city or worse. Besides, we can manage by ourselves." The elderly Octosniper at the head of the table said.
The survivors of the final boss battle as well as our heroes were situated at the large briefing room table, discussing plans.
"General Masa, with all due respect, you're an idiot if you think we can live on stale bread rations and all this other stuff." Tai blurted out.
"T-41, it is General M-45-4. We can do just FINE without these Inkling's help. If anything, they'll make it worse."
"Hey!" Sharq exclaimed. "Come on, we're just trying to lend a tentacle here. Your base is literally falling apart as we speak."
A piece of shrapnel dropped and pierced the middle of the table.
"See?! Look man, we can either try to help you out, or we could go right now and let you starve. We're just trying to help." Sharq said.
Masa gingerly lifted an old tentacle up to his chin, or face or wherever the Octarians' equivalent of a chin would be, before finally speaking, "...I do not like this plan. I especially don't like the idea of letting these Inklings go, knowing our location. But as I see no other option, considering the state of our forces, your request in granted. T-41, you will accompany these two as they gather supplies, and will report back to base. Understand?"
Tai grinned. "Alright, finally some action!" She saluted the general, and turned to Splin and Sharq. "How are we gonna do this?"
Splin motioned, and the Tele-Cube flew over with a small, detailed map. "Here's the idea…"
Splin, Sharq, and Tai all peered out of the manhole as cephalopods. The Inklings were all partying in the plaza, still celebrating a victory. Splin crawled out slowly, and motioned to the two, lifting a giant box. Sharq leaped out, with a smaller box, and looked to Tai, who simply rolled her eyes. She hopped into the box as an Octopus, Sharq closing it quickly. The two brothers inconspicuously (for real this time) made their way through the crowd, into Jelly Fresh.
"Hello, welcome to Jelly Fresh!" Jelonzo charismatically greeted the two.
"Hi Jelonzo, we're actually here on a special request." Splin said.
"Ah, a request? What is the special request you would ask of me?" Jelonzo asked.
"We need to buy ALL the clothes!" Sharq said.
An awkward silence followed.
"...I am confused. There are only two of you, yes? Why would you need the bundles of clothes for the two bodies?" Jelonzo grew curious.
"...Err. Fashion donations…?" Splin asked hopefully.
Luckily for him, Jelonzo bought it. "Ah, this is the most noble request! Buying clothes for the ones who need the fresh? Perfect! All of the clothes in the store, yes?"
Splin and Sharq nodded. "That will be 3,000,000 coins!"
Okay that's bullshrimp, (excuse my language) lemme just uh… do this.
A small brick landed on Jelonzo, knocking him out cold. Splin and Sharq stared at the absurdity that happened, Tai poking her head out of the box in bewilderment.
What? You guys weren't seriously gonna grind for days just so you could buy all of those clothes, were you?
Tai shrugged. "Works for me."
The two Inkling brothers were now pushing a giant box through the plaza full of supplies after going from place to place, getting stuff. They felt guilty for Jelonzo, so they dropped a small pile of coins in the tip jar, along with a, "Get Well Soon" card with a jellyfish on the cover. They had managed to get clothing, food, and other stuff for the dying Octarians, now all they needed was a source of electricity. They received some weird looks from other Inklings, but were for the most part ignored.
"Where are we gonna find something that generates electricity? All the Zapfish are locked away, and there's no way we can keep it lit forever with just batteries." Splin wondered out loud.
"Hmm… Hey wait, wasn't there another Great Zapfish? I think I remember seeing one earlier…" Tai said, still concealed in the box.
"Oh yeah! Shockwhisk! He doesn't mind the domes or Octarians as much since he became… Shockwhisk." Sharq said.
"Well, where is he?" Splin asked, when a bump noise could be heard.
Looking up at the Squid Sisters' studio, they could see a certain electrical catfish jumping around inside, much to the enjoyment of Callie, and the slight annoyance of Marie.
"Wow, he's hanging out with stars? Shockwhisk is getting really popular." Sharq said.
"There's no time to lose! We gotta find a way to get in there and get it out!" Tai said.
"How? Those two are celebrities, they probably have some huge security in there."
Marie could be seen sighing, before she walked out of the studio. Callie followed suit, leaving Shockwhisk behind. The lights went off, and the Inklings in the plaza began to call it a night.
"This is our chance!"
Splin and Sharq ran towards the studio, Tai still in the box, when a cocky voice rang out.
"Well well well! What do we have here?"
"This was literally the worst time possible." Splin cringed, spinning around to see Ari and his crew.
"You two may have showed me up twice now with that win and siccing the Orange team on us, but no more!" Ari shouted, the females joining in with a chant of, "That's right!" Ari cleared his throat. "I challenge you two to- HEY!"
Splin and Sharq ran away, pushing the heavy box as they did.
"Sorry, we have no time!" Sharq yelled back.
Two chapters of Ari is enough, let's pretend he's not in this one.
"I'll get my comeuppance some day!" Ari shouted.
"Who was that?" Tai asked, poking her little Octopus head out of the box again.
"Ari. I think he's still salty over all the stuff we did. We'll talk about it some other time, right now this is the more important issue." Splin explained. Tai nodded, and lowered herself back into the box.
The Bate Brothers were behind the studio building, all of the employees leaving work to go home and sleep, (kinda like I've been doing when I should have been writing this) leaving the three of them to the studio. Quietly entering the lobby, they made their way up the building upstairs to the studio, where Shockwhisk was lying peacefully. The three of them snuck behind it, and gently tapped Shockwhisk. Waking up, the Shockwhisk looked at them, then began to hop around happily.
"Shock-"
"Not now Shockwhisk, we gotta go!" Sharq exclaimed.
Shockwhisk stood there for a while, a little confused. Suddenly, it coiled up, and launched itself out the door they had entered to get to the studio.
"..." Splin stood in silence, before bolting out the door after it. Looking around, he noticed Shockwhisk bounding into a room. He entered the room, looking around. It was a lounge, small yet comfortable. Splin began to examine the room for signs of the Shockwhisk, until he heard a crackling sound. The Shockwhisk was sitting by a strange orb, static flickering off its whiskers.
"...Ugh. Back for more, Inklings? Huh. Here I thought it would be over." A voice said from the orb.
Splin looked into the orb, and found DJ Octavio himself trapped inside! His eyes widened, and he called out for help. "Sharq, Tai, get over here!"
"What's up? You find Sho-" Tai stopped abruptly. "Octavio?!"
"Nice to see you too, Tai." Octavio said.
"We need to get you outta here, we've already gathered supplies for the Octarians!" Tai exclaimed.
"What happened to the Octarians?" Octavio asked. He was answered with a silence. "...Alright. Bring me back, there's a lot of dirty records I need to clean. They probably need their leader more than ever, huh?"
Tai put her hand on her cheek. "Always gotta be so egotistical."
Octavio chuckled.
The three of them were now outside the back of the building, pushing a huge box full of supplies, Shockwhisk accompanying them, with Tai outside of her box to push Octavio home. It was relatively late at night, so hopefully they don't have to get into any unnecessary conflict scenes.
"There's the manhole!" Sharq pointed ahead at the plaza, which was now empty.
Splin nodded. "Great! Now, all we gotta do now is push all this stuff to-"
"Um."
The entire group slowly turned, and spotted a certain anemone and clownfish standing by the Cooler Heads, the former just putting up a closed sign. She was staring in bewilderment at the group, frozen in place.
Splin waved. "Uh… Hi Annie. We're just um… This isn't what it… Ah nevermind, guys, run."
"I'M CALLING THE COPS!" The clownfish yelled.
"Come on Moe! We bought the hats!" Sharq said exasperated.
"Screw this, let's go!" Tai said, shoving DJ Octavio's snowglobe into the manhole, where it surprisingly fit and started to fall. The box was next, the two brothers pushing it in quickly.
"Hey! Stop!" A voice rang out. A couple of agents revealed themselves, surrounding the three.
"Agents A and B, what are you two doing?!" Agent 2 asked.
Splin closed his eyes for a second. "Doing the right thing! Sorry guys… Please understand, we're doing this to help." Splin pushed Tai and Sharq over to the grates, where they dropped down.
The agents began to advance towards the manhole, only to be stopped by someone yelling out, "Wait."
Cap'n Cuttlefish slowly walked to the manhole, and stood there silently. "Don't go after them, agents. They're fine."
"G-Gramps? What are you talking about? They just stole the tiny Great Zapfish and DJ Octavio!" Agent 1 said, gesturing to the manhole.
"It's alright Agent 1. Buckos, you can go home now. I'll handle this." Cap'n Cuttlefish slowly walked to the manhole and slid down.
"...Has gramps gone insane?!" Agent 1 exclaimed, running after him.
"No more crabby cakes for him." Agent 2 said, following Agent 1.
Splin was currently pushing in all of the supplies possible, carefully making sure that the Octarian forces in the kettle below received them without a hitch. Sharq was below, escorting Shockwhisk to his little kennel, Tai helping out the survivors by giving around food. All he had to do now was get Octavio in the kettle.
"What convinced you to go after an old DJ like me, anyway?" Octavio asked. "Threats? Rewards? Why?"
Splin turned to Octavio. "Just didn't think it was fair."
Octavio scoffed. "Pity? That's a new one."
"I know you aren't the biggest fan of Inklings, but we're glad we helped a bit." Splin said. Octavio sat there in silence for awhile, until Splin began to push him into the kettle.
"Alright, let's get you back to the throne." Splin said.
"Agent B?"
Splin turned around, and saw Cap'n Cuttlefish, as well as the two Agents 1 and 2.
"Look, I don't want anymore bloodshed. I'm just helping them out. If you want to arrest me, interrogate me, fine. But if you're here to hurt anyone…" Splin brandished an Inkbrush at the three, pointing defensively with it. "We're going to have a huge issue."
"Bucko, calm down. I came here with these two to apologize." Cap'n Cuttlefish raised his hand in a peaceful manner.
"Hmph." Octavio grunted.
Agent 1 and 2 removed their headgear, and it was revealed to Splin that they were indeed, The Squid Sisters.
Yeah I bet no one saw that coming.
"Agent B, we wanna say that… We're sorry to the Octarians." Callie stated, looking at the ground.
"Sorry… What I don't understand is, couldn't you guys have negotiated or something?" Marie said.
"...Stealing the Great Zapfish wasn't a great idea." Splin said, looking over at Octavio. "But going out there to negotiate isn't the best idea either. Other Inklings don't know much about the state of Octarians, right? So I'd bet they'd react very negatively to seeing one of the biggest threats to their way of life pop up and ask for a Zapfish or two."
Marie sighed. "Huh. Makes sense when you put it that way."
"Bucko, even if I only knew you for a few days, I'm proud to call you Agent B. No one else has decided to think like that, and help these people out. Octavio, I hope everything gets better old friend." Octavio nodded slightly. Cap'n waved, and began to walk home with the Squid Sisters.
"Hold on!" Sharq popped out of the kettle.
"What is it Agent A?" Cap'n asked.
"Uh… Could I have your autograph?" Sharq asked.
Splin facepalmed so hard, it echoed throughout the valley. Callie and Marie smiled.
"Sure, A!" Callie walked over. "What would you like signed?"
Sharq pulled out his Strange Krak-On Roller and tossed it on the ground.
"Sign it to Sharq, please!" Sharq smiled widely.
Marie rolled her eyes. "Fans."
"Arigato again, Splin and Sharq. You really outdid yourself this time!" Tai said.
The whole crew was chilling in the Rec Room of the Octarian base, DJ Octavio playing some sick beats. The whole place looked brand new, and the people were just hanging out, being fresh, and having fun. Salty was hopping around the dance floor, and the Tele-Cube was acting like a disco ball, but as a cube. Shockwhisk was dancing around in his kennel, creating electricity for all.
"Where are these Inklings I have heard so much about?" Someone asked from the crowd.
"Uh… Right here." Splin raised his hand.
An Octoling emerged from the crowd. However, unlike the other Octolings, this one had a different hairstyle, a ponytail similar to the one boy Inklings wear, two tentacles wrapped up and the other two on the back. That's the Male Octoling design I'm going for anyways, I don't know about you.
He walked up to the table, and shook both of their hands.
"Danke! I appreciate you helping us Octarians out! We'd be goners if you didn't step in!" The male Octoling said happily.
"5-3B, calm down. We're all grateful, but if you shake their hands any faster, they'd snap." Aussie said, sitting at a nearby table.
The male Octoling chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry."
"It's fine. 5-3B?" Splin inquired.
Tai cleared her throat. "Sebastian, how are things going with the respawn points?"
"T-41, come on! Use the codename please." Sebastian said. "Er, the respawn points are working great. J3r-ry is watching over it, and everyone's coming out fine!"
"Good to know." Aussie nodded in response.
"Well, it's been great to meet you two!" Sebastian said. "Auf wiedersehen!" Sebastian went back into the crowd dancing, presumably to bust out some flashy moves.
"Huh. Nice guy. Hey, how come he's the only male Octoling we've seen so far?" Splin asked.
"Eh, most male Octolings aren't allowed in the army because Octavio thought they might… 'get busy' with the females, or distract them." Tai said.
"Soooo, what's his story?" Sharq asked.
"He seemed to cooperate well with others, and not in a really sappy romantic way, he was just bursting with friendliness. Seriously, first time I meant him, he ran up to me just to shake my hand. Other male Octolings are around, but most of them are off training or hanging out with select groups." Tai explained.
"Sounds… Complicated." Sharq said.
Tai shrugged. "It's just how it has been."
Splin nodded, then suddenly the two brothers yawned at the same time.
"Do you Inklings have some sort of telepathic connection we're not aware of?" Aussie joked.
"Nah… Just tired. Hey Splin, what time is it?" Sharq looked at his brother, who was nodding off.
"...Hmm? Sorry it's… too late." Splin yawned, and face planted on the table, snoring quietly.
"Yeah, we gotta go. It was nice hanging out with you guys!" Sharq waved, and tried to lift Splin, but found that his fatigue prevented him from doing so.
Should've drank a stamina potion. Tai, you might wanna help them with this.
"I'm on it." Tai helped lift Splin, the Tele-Cube slowly following while lifting Salty. The group of them shuffled to the hills, finishing off a long overdue chapter.
ROLL CREDITS.
...I dunno, play the Splatoon credits theme or something. Thus ends the single, or should I say multiplayer campaign.
...I'm still gonna continue the story, we're not done yet!
As long as I don't get sidetracked again.
AN: Still Alive: Alright, well I apologize for this chapter, mostly the length, the time it took to get it posted, and the butchering of the official characters. I don't really think I captured their personalities the best, but oh well, when you spend your time writing the story rather than playing the game it's based on, stuff's gonna happen. I wanted to cut this chapter into multiple parts, but I thought, "No, I gotta finish this". Anyways, time to respond to reviews! Thank you again, Anon360 and sebastian830! I don't really know how you like your waffles Anon, so hopefully I wrote the waffles well enough. Also, sebastian, it's fine, if you have a headache, I'd understand. Besides, you guys don't have to review the story each time, you probably have stuff to do. Sorry if the cameo didn't come out as you had hoped sebastian, I tried. Other than that, I thank you all once again for reading this long chapter, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, I have to earn money for Yoshi's Wooly World. See you next time!